214 BOUQUET IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY. [1764, Oct. 



that their warriors were encamped, in great num- 

 bers, about eight miles from the spot, and desiring 

 Bouquet to appoint the time and place for a coun- 

 cil. He ordered them to meet him, on the next 

 day, at a point near the margin of the river, a little 

 below the camp ; and thither a party of men was 

 at once despatched, to erect a sort of rustic arbor 

 of saplings and the boughs of trees, large enough 

 to shelter the English officers and the Indian chiefs. 

 With a host of warriors in the neighborhood, who 

 would gladly break in upon them, could they hope 

 that the attack would succeed, it behooved the Eng- 

 lish to use every precaution. A double guard was 

 placed, and a stringent discipline enforced. 



In the morning, the little army moved in battle 

 order to the place of council. Here the principal 

 officers assumed their seats under the canopy of 

 branches, while the glittering array of the troops 

 was drawn out on the meadow in front, in such a 

 manner as to produce the most imposing effect on 

 the minds of the Indians, in whose eyes the sight 

 of fifteen hundred men under arms was a spectacle 

 equally new and astounding. The perfect order 

 and silence of the far-extended lines ; the ridges 

 of bayonets flashing in the sun ; the fluttering tar- 

 tans of the Highland regulars ; the bright red 

 uniform of the Hoyal Americans ; the darker garb 

 and duller trappings of the Pennsylvania troops, 

 and the bands of Virginia backwoodsmen, who, in 

 fringed hunting-frocks and Indian moccasons, stood 

 leaning carelessly on their rifles, — all these com- 

 bined to form a scene of military pomp and power 

 not soon to be forgrotten. 



